“We share a bond that is greater than just friendship …” An interview with MGS tennis captain Rachel Loy

By Les Tan/Red Sports

Rachel Loy, 15, captained the Methodist Girls’ School B Division tennis team to the title this year. It was their school’s first B Division title since 2005. Their win snapped a four-year winning streak of B Division titles for Raffles Girls’ School.

In their final against Raffles Girls’ School, Rachel partnered Nichole Tan to beat RGS’ Ting Yang Gin and Huang Wei Ting 6-2, 6-2 to secure the crucial third point for victory.

Rachel comes from a family of tennis players and has been playing since she was 5 years old and she started playing competitively in Primary 4 when she was asked to join the MGS primary school team.

We catch up with her about her team’s recent victory.

Red Sports: You beat RGS 3-2 in the recent B Division final. What was the feeling like when the last point was won?
Rachel Loy: I was so, so happy when we won and I really thank God, our coach and all of my teammates. I feel so privileged being on this team and playing with my teammates, and I was really excited when we managed to beat the odds and bring glory to our school.

For the record, what was your team’s road to the final?
Preliminary rounds:
Against St Margaret’s – Won 4-1
Against CHIJ (Katong Convent) – Won 4-1
Against St Anthony’s Cannossian – Won 5-0
Against Raffles Girls’ School – Won 3-2

Semi-finals: Against Singapore Chinese Girls’ School – Won 4-1

Which was the toughest match up for you personally during the run to the championship title?
Rachel Loy: For me personally, the semi-finals against SCGS was the toughest match. The line-up went our way, but when we started playing, I was up in my doubles match but we were losing three other matches.

That was really hard for me, because I really thought that we were going to lose, and I couldn’t even do anything about it. But in the end, our teammates fought hard and we won 4 matches to 1!

You are the captain of the team. Did it come as a surprise to you to be picked as captain and how did it feel to be chosen?
When I was chosen, I was very excited and I felt very honoured to be the captain of the team, especially for this team because we share a bond that is greater than just friendship because we’ve gone through so much together.

In a way, this makes it easier to be the captain, because I know all my teammates so well. It is a big responsibility to keep up the morale and to take the lead, but it is really rewarding when I see the whole team come together, especially during our competition this season.

How often did you train and what were the sacrifices you made for tennis?
I train about 4-5 times a week. Sometimes I have less free time and less time to finish school work and I have to balance tennis and my roles in school as well.

If you didn’t play tennis for school, what other sport could you imagine yourself representing school for?
If I wasn’t playing tennis, I think I would represent the school in netball. I was on the school netball team in primary school as well as the tennis team, but eventually I had to choose between tennis and netball so I followed my passion for tennis. I really enjoyed netball too, so if I wasn’t on the tennis team, I would probably be playing netball.